BAPB* No. 10: Disappointment, coming attractions, and football

*Bouncing Around Paul's Brain

Updated December 8, 2022 for dismal football prediction results

Democrats' decisions to force a labor contract on workers who'd rejected it is a disappointment, but not a surprise.

Workers haven't been able to count on the Democratic Party for support for decades. President Jimmy Carter started the ball rolling by deregulating transportation, which led to significantly worse pay, benefits, and working conditions for truckers and railroad and airline employees. Carter and every Democratic president since have led the way on free trade that's shipped jobs overseas and lowered wages in our country, and they've been complicit in Republican-led tax bills that subsidize employers but not employees. So it isn't surprising that President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress have once again handed corporate America a gift and turned their back on workers.

They have their reasons, as explained here, and they aren't all bad. It's reasonable to stop the strike, especially during a busy shipping period, but only for a few months. Biden wanted to rush this before Republicans control the House of Representatives in a month. Instead, he must have known that no government intervention would be possible once that happened. He should have made sure the railroads and workers knew that and given them a short window to get together on a contract. It's management and labor's responsibility to negotiate a contract that all parties can agree to. They failed and they needed to be forced back to that job, not bailed out by Congress and the President.

New posts coming soon; I need your help!

Next week I'll be getting back to longer posts, at least for a bit, starting with a look at Oklahoma Republicans' theory that cutting or eliminating our state income tax will make us as prosperous as Texas. I also feel a rant on college football coming on. Preview: everything that's wrong with our country is wrapped up in a neat little package called college football.

I'm also thinking about true student loan reform and aim to have something in a couple weeks. Finally and most importantly, I'm working on my favorite music list for 2022. If you've heard something that's worthy of mention, please let me know by commenting here or on the Facebook and Twitter pages. Same goes for student loan article; if you'd like to share an experience or a policy idea, please do so!

College football predictions, week 14 (conference championships)

Results: Well, I was correct that TCU would lose but not that they'd miss the playoff as a result. Fair enough after a great season. I also got that Ohio State would get back in, but instead of thanking Kansas St., they had to thank Utah. Overall this week was a pretty sad 6-4 in picking winners and an embarrassing 3-7 against the spread.

Last week I finally hit my targets on predictions, getting over 70 percent both on winners and against the line. Not sure why, but I'm not questioning it. This week is mainly a week of conference championships that will decide who's in the playoffs and the 74 bowls named after companies we've never heard of. As far as playoffs go, I show Kansas State and #3 TCU as the closest and I think Kansas State will win, knocking TCU out of the playoffs and probably letting Ohio State back in; I still think Alabama is better than Ohio State but the playoff committee emphasizes wins and losses at the expense of who's actually the best. Regardless, a Georgia-Ohio State semifinal would probably be the best game of the year and overshadow whatever happens in the championship.

I'm not convinced USC belongs in the playoffs but they should beat Utah to get there.

Visitor	Home	Line	Winner	Against Line
#14 LSU	#1 Georgia	Georgia by 17.5	Georgia	LSU
Purdue	#2 Michigan	Michigan by 16.5	Michigan	Purdue
#10 Kansas St.	#3 TCU	TCU by 2.5	Kansas St.	Kansas St.
#11 Utah	#4 USC	USC by 2.5	USC	USC
#9 Clemson	#23 N. Carolina	Clemson by 7.5	Clemson	N. Carolina
#22 Central Fla.	#18 Tulane	Tulane by 4	Tulane	Tulane
N. Texas	Tex. San Antonio	UTSA by 8.5	UTSA	N. Texas
Toledo	Ohio	Toledo by 3	Ohio	Ohio
Coastal Carolina	Troy	Troy by 8.5	Troy	Coastal
Fresno St.	Boise St.	Boise by 3	Boise	Fresno